Supercapacitors in Motion: Autonomous Microswimmers for Natural-Resource Recovery

0508918 - ÚOCHB 2020 RIV DE eng J - Journal Article
Beladi-Mousavi, S. M. - Khezri, B. - Matějková, Stanislava - Sofer, Z. - Pumera, M.
Supercapacitors in Motion: Autonomous Microswimmers for Natural-Resource Recovery.
Angewandte Chemie - International Edition. Roč. 58, č. 38 (2019), s. 13340-13344. ISSN 1433-7851. E-ISSN 1521-3773
Institutional support: RVO:61388963
Keywords : bismuth * environmental remediation * graphite * lithium purification * micromotors
OECD category: Inorganic and nuclear chemistry
Impact factor: 12.959, year: 2019
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/anie.201906642

An electroadsorption technique similar to the ultrafast charging mechanism in supercapacitors is utilized to remove metals with different sizes and hydrophilicities from contaminated water using self-propelled microswimmers. The swimmers carry graphite fibre or bismuth with a layered crystal structure providing high electrostatic double-layer capacitances. Unlike previous methods, this electrochemical technique does not only utilize the surface of the swimmers, but due to the interlayer spacing of the graphite and bismuth, it is able to store metals in approximate to 400 layers, allowing removal and recovery of >50 ppm lithium in only 5 min. A larger interlayer distance between bismuth sheets allows the removal of bigger cations (sodium and calcium), expanding the application of this method to a large variety of natural elements. Finally, magnetic navigation of charged swimmers to an oxygen-saturated media causes oxidation and thus immediate release of the metal ions from the swimmers.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0299743